Board Of Fisheries Meeting Starts On Feb. 23 To Discuss Upper Cook Inlet Finfish

The following press release is courtesy of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Board of Fisheries:

Alaska Board of Fisheries to meet in Anchorage for Upper Cook Inlet Finfish February 23–March 5, 2024

The Alaska Board of Fisheries (board) will meet in Anchorage for a 12-day meeting to consider 185 proposals concerning Upper Cook Inlet finfish. The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. on February 23 and is scheduled to go through March 5 at the Egan Civic and Convention Center located at 555 West 5th Avenue.

All portions of the meeting are open to the public and a live video stream is intended to be available on the board’s website at www.boardoffisheries.adfg.alaska.gov.

In addition to submitting written public comments for the board’s consideration, the public is invited to give oral testimony during the meeting. For this meeting, the board will allow the public to sign up for dedicated time blocks for their public testimony. There will be a morning and an afternoon time block for Sunday, Feb. 25 and if those time blocks fill up (approximately 40-45 people per block), the board may add an additional time block for Monday morning. Individuals can also sign up on the general testimony list and names from that list will be called on Saturday (Feb. 24) or Monday (Feb. 26). To sign up, you must fill out and turn in (at the meeting) a blue card indicating your choice of a time block or the general list. The deadline to sign up for a time block will be 3:00 p.m. on Friday, Feb 23, and the deadline to sign up for the general list is 10:00 a.m. Saturday, Feb 24. Public testimony will continue until members of the public who signed up before the deadlines and are present have been given an opportunity to testify.

Following staff reports, the board will be receiving Traditional Knowledge reports from the public. Anyone interested in providing a Traditional Knowledge report must fill out and return the sign-up formto the board’s Executive Director at art.nelson@alaska.gov or by fax to (907) 465-6094 no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 21. More information on Traditional Knowledge reports can be found in the board’s December 6, 2023 Supplemental Notice and in the 2^nd Supplemental Noticeissued on January 24, 2024.

All meeting information including the notice, proposals, agenda, roadmap, agency reports, and public and advisory committee comments will be available on the meeting website at: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.meetinginfo&date=02-23-2024&meeting=anchorage. Documents submitted to the board during the meeting will also be posted to this webpage throughout the meeting.

Written comments on specific proposals will be accepted during the meeting and can be submitted online through the meeting website provided in the paragraph above. Comments must not exceed 10 single-sided or 5 double-sided pages in length from any one individual or group. Once proposal deliberations begin, the board will ONLY accept written public comments not more than five single-sided pages, or the equivalent double-sided pages. The board may relax this requirement if specific information is requested by the board requiring more pages than allowed under this standard. Individuals not in attendance can also submit written comments by fax to (907) 465-6094.

Learn More about the Board of Fisheries Process: The Boards Support Section is hosting a training course, How to Navigate the Board Process, roughly ten minutes following the lunch adjournment on February 23 in the main meeting room. While the training is designed for those new to the board process, all are welcome to join.